Hiram berdan



N,FETERS, FHOTCLLITMDGRAFHER. WASHINGTON. D c

UNTTE STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HIRAM BERDAN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

BREAD-CUTTER.

Speccaton of Letters Patent No. 23,548, dated April 12, 1859.

To @ZZ whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, Hman BERDAN, of New York, in the county of New Yorkand State of New York, have invented a new and useful Loaf-Cutter forDividing or CutA ting up Dough into Parts of Equal WTeight; and I dohereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription of the construction and operation of the saine, referencebeing' had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification,in which- Figure l is a sectional front elevation of the loaf cutter.Fig. 2 is a side elevation, and Fig. 5l is a sectional side view of thelower parts. Fig. 4 is a sectional view of the cavity cylinder' on alarger scale.

Similar letters referring to similar parts on each.

My invention consists in the employment of a large cylinder a placedvertically', with its upper end level with one floor of the building sothat dough can be emptied into it from above. This cylinder is providedwith a piston Z) attached to the end of a screw c. rThis screw isoperated by nieans of a nut (Z in a heavy cross head or cap-platecresting on the coluinns j, these columns being' firmly bolted to theframe in which the cylinder a is held. The nut Z is turned by means ofthe large gear wheel g while the '-.v is held from turning by a featheror attached to the under side of the cross head e and working in aspline or groove in the screw. Se that by the revolution of the nut thepiston can be raised or lowered. Below the bottom plate of the largecylinder a is placed a smaller cylinder Zzy with its axis horizontal androtating on a stationary shaft z' having its bearings in the frames jbolted to the bottoni plate of the cylinder a. This smaller cylinder Z1.which l terni the cavity cylinder is perforated with holes Zr coincidingin size and position with holes through the bottom plate of the cylindera. Tn these holes 7@ are fitted plugs or pistons Z having rollers mrunning in a `groove in the sideof the eccentric n, which eccentric isfirmly keyed to the stationary shaft. New it is obvious that if theshaft and its eccentric remain stationary and the cylinder be inade torevolve, that the plugs or pistons Z will gradually approach theperiphery of the cavity cylinder or recede into it leaving cavities inthe cylinder of a depth equal to the throw of the eccentric. Now it isalso obvious by reference to Fig. 4 (which represents a section of thiscavity cylinder drawn on a `larger scale, having its surface piercedwith eight cavities equidistant from each other, and all having pistonsconnected with the salne eccentric n) that as the cylinder is inade torevolve, each of the pistons will in succession assume the positionsindica-ted by 'he numbers l, 2, 3, 4, 5, G, 7, and 8, and that if theextreme throw of the eccentric be turned directly downward the cavitieswill be deepest as they approach the top, so that by turning the centershaft with its eccentric backward or forward the cavities may beincreased or diminished in depth at the top or the place where theyreceive their charge of dough. To accomplish this there is an arin okeyed to one end of the stationary shaft and projecting downward to aquadrant which is niarked to indicate the depth of the upper cavities.

The set screw p is for the purpose of securing the shaft in positionafter it is set. The scraper g attached to the center shaft `by the armsr touches the surface of the cylinder at the line where the plugs orpistons Z coincide with the surface of the cylinder, and is for thepurpose of scraping off the loaves. On one end ofthe cavity cylinder isa ratchet wheel s of eight teeth or one tooth to each row of cavities.This ratchet wheel is operated by means of the pawl 2f on one of thearms u., which arlns carry a curved knife o having two holes in it ofthe saine size as the cavities; now suppose the knife isplaced so thatthe holes in the bottoin plate of the large cylinder a, in the knife andthe cavities all coincide, if the dough be then forced down by thepiston it will lill the cavities and the knife being moved back will cutoff the dough and continuing its motion until the knife holes coincidewith the next row of holes in the cavity cylinder, the pawl will thendrop hehind a new tooth on its ratchet wheel and on the return strokewill carry forward a new set of cavities to be filled. Thus on eachrevolution of the crank shaft 'w to which is attached the connecting rodto operate the knife, there are a set of holes placed in position toreceive the dough from the large cylinder, the knife then separates thedough in the cylinder a froin that in the cavities and a new set ofholes are brought into position and while as the cavity cylindercontinues its revolution the loaves are forced out by the plugs orpistons and falling into the hopper m they pass into what l term therounding up or polishing roller. This roller y has its axis parallel tothe axis of the cavity cylinder and is partially surrounded by a shieldor casing a which casing has grooves of a nearly semicircular form andcoinciding with similar grooves in the roller y. This roller y has notgot a continuous rotary motion, but has a forward and backward motionthe forward motion being at each stroke one eighth of a revolution whilethe backward motion is only one sixteenth of a revolution; to accomplishthis 1 have two ratchet wheels a and Zn attached to the roller havingtheir teeth set in opposite directions; these ratchet wheels areoperated by an arm c moved by the connecting rod CZ and crank c. Thisarm carries two pawls 7 and g set in opposite directions to suit theteeth of the ratchet wheelsone of these pawls g is provided with a pinin the side of it, and during a portion of its back stroke and while thepawl f is pushing forward its ratchet wheel the pin rides up onto ashield or guard 7L which lifts the pawl from the wheel and on the returnstroke it falls into the next tooth instead of dropping into the oneimmediately below it and imparts to this ratchet wheel only one half themotion due to the full throw of the crank c. This gives the vibratorymotion required to roll up the loaves in a similar manner to bakersrolling by hand. As the loaves fall from this polishing or rounding uproller, they are received on an endless apron z" passing along a tablefrom whichV they are taken by the workmen and put into form for baking.Now the machinery necessary to give motion to all these devices consistsof a horizontal shaft w having a crank on its end to give motion to thecavity cylinder. On this shaft is a bevel wheel gearing into a bevelwheel of the same size on an upright shaft 7c passing to the top of themachine and giving motion to the large gear wheel on the nut, by meansof the pinion Z and the intermediate wheel m.

At the bottoni of the upright shaft is a spur wheel gearing into asimilar wheel on the vertical crank shaft u which gives motion to therounding up roller. Now it must be obvious that by varying theproportion of the gearing at the top of the upright shaft c, that ischanging the pinion Z and the intermediate wheel m, the amount of motionof the piston to each stroke of the connecting rod to the cavitycylinder will be altered. The connecting rod 0 is made with a fork onone end so that it can be lifted from off the crank pin and having hungit to the hook p the piston can be raised or lowered without moving thecavity cylinder. In order to understand clearly the manner of using mymachine it must be borne in mind that the depth of the cavities can bealtered and the feed of the piston downward can be altered, now it mustbe evident to every mechanic that if the piston during each strokedisplaces an amount of dough equal in bulli to the sumof the cubiccontents of the cavities to receive the dough, the cavities being allequal in size or bulk the loaves discharged will be of equal size.Suppose therefore that ten thousand ounces of dough be put into thecylinder and thatthe piston be forced down upon the dough without movingthe cavity cylinder until it has compressed the dough into a space often thousand cubic inches, and that the cavity cylinder is then put intomotion, presenting at each stroke of the connecting rod two cavitieseach of ten cubic inches and that the motion of the piston be at a speedto displace twenty cubic inches at each stroke, it is very obvious thatthe whole bulk of dough will be cut up into (ten thousand divided byten) one thousand equal parts and each part will contain ten cubicinches and of necessity weigh ten ounces.

Now the objects to be gained, and what particularly recommends myinvention asone of great utility, is in the first place that it doesaway with the expensive, uncertain and laborious process of dividingdough into loaves by the ordinary process of scaling, which involves thenecessity of much handling and great inaccuracy in the weight of theloaves. Now in my machine all the loaves must be of one uniform weightand the rapidity with which it can be worked, viz. at the rate of tenbarrels of flour in twenty minutes, does away with any risk of the doughproving too much, or becoming too light or sour, during the scalingprocess. In the second place the rolling or polishing arrangementdescribed above gives the loaves to the workmen in a form and conditionrequiring very little manual labor to fit them for the oven.

Another striking feature of my invent-ion consists in the applicabilityto the manufacture of crackers for it is only a question of size, itsadaptation to the scaling or dividing of dough into loaves for bread, orthe dividing it into pieces for crackers; while the superiority ofcrackers made by this process is very great, because the dough is cut upinto pieces of the required size without being laminated as by theordinary process of rolling and cut-ting with cutters.

The great objection to all machine made crackers arises from the factthat they are formed of distinct layers of dough, not united at theedges of the crackers and consequently the heat ofl baking is apt tosplit them and rend-er them unfit for market, while hand made crackershave a perfect skin or crust preventing them from splitting. Now mymachine forces the dough Q te in mass into the cavities, and thenpassing the pieces into the polishing or rolling cylinder the crackersfall upon the table in balls, which being flattened, punched andstamped, will be to all appearance the same as hand made crackers andequally as good.

To describe more fully the manner of working my machine and to enableany one skilled in mechanics to construct it and put it in operation-lwill state that it has been found by experiment that equal weights ofproven and unproven dough can be compressed by a force of from tive totwenty lbs. to the square inch into the space of one and one half cubicinches to the ounce.n

Hence knowing the exact diameter of the large cylinder a scale or rodcan be constructed, marked with the pounds and wheel rod will indicateto what depth the piston must descend before the cavity cylinder is putinto operation. Then setting the eccentric on the shaft in the cavitycylinder in such a position as will make the top cavities the properdepth to hold the required weight of dough, and marking each position onthe quadrant thus 1G, 17, 18, &c., ozs. and having a change of pinicnsto fit on the upright shaft, to give the proper speed to the piston itis ready for use. Suppose for instance it is required to scale oif abiatch of dough into twenty ounce loaves-the arm is moved on thequadrant until it is at the place marked twenty. A pinion andintermediate wheel marked twenty are also put in place on top of themachine. Then having weighed the batch of dough in mass, itis throwninto the cylinder, the piston is run down until it compresses the doughin the cylinder to the bulk indicated on the gage rod suited to theweight, and then the cavity cylinders being thrown int?) operation theloaves will pass out as above described.

Now it must be evident to every ingenious mechanic, that the form of mymachine may be varied, as for instance the cavity cylinder may bereplaced hy a plate having a reciprocating motion with cavities adjustedin depth by inclined planes, and also that the piston may be forced downby means of rack and pinions operated by gearing or worm wheels andworms and that motion may be given to the gearing by a ratchet wheel,the speed of the piston being governed by the number of teeth in ratchetwheel used at each stroke of the connecting rod. And yet with all thesechanges the theory of the working of the machine will remain the same.

Now I do not claim the separate devices used in my machine as new, mostof them if not all being in common use for other purposes and familiarto every mechanic. But I think it must be evident from the foregoingdescription of my machine and the manner of working it that the theoryof its operation and the novelty of the invention apart from thepeculiar rolling apparatus, is the scaling or dividing of dough intoparts of equal weight, by forcing it into adjustable cavities by anydevice whereby the large mass of dough shall be condensed between eachstroke of the cutting off knife exactly as much as the cubic capacit-yof the cavities placed to receive it-Therefore Nh at I claim as new anddesire to secure by Letters Patent isl. The arrangement of certaindevices viz. the adjustable cavities or their equivalents in combinationwith the cutting oft knife or its equivalent, and the large cylinder andpiston or their equivalents and the so connecting the several parts,that the amount of dough displaced by the piston shall be exactly equalto the cubic contents of the cavities presented for filling between eachstroke of the cutting olf knife substan tially as and for the purposespecified.

2. l also claim the devices for rounding up the loaves as they fall fromthe cavities, consisting of the grooved roller and shield or theirequivalents the roller having a vibrator-y motion in the manner and forthe purpose specifiedin combination wit-h the preceding arrangement ofdevices claimed substantially as and for the purpose specified.

HIB-AM BERDAN.

lVitnesses H. A. V. Foss, COLEMAN PELTUs.

